Coach me

Innovation in bus travel

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Concept

Coach me is an interactive and suggestive installation revolving around a Europe-wide ethnographic and design research project on coach travel. Using material from the ethnographic fieldwork and design phase, attendees are invited to take part in the research experience and discover the process that laid the groundwork for a successful innovative bus travel service, called iDBUS. The installation confronts research methodologies and conclusions with the final product as it has been implemented. By using suggestive techniques (example: the visitor is asked to stand in a square the size of a coach seat and is shown photographs from the passenger’s perspective) to evoke fieldwork and design insights the installation’s aim is to create room for questioning and stimulate discussion among attendees.

This research was undertaken for the Sncf (the French railway company) which, following the deregulation of long-distance bus travel in Europe, aimed to be first on the market with an innovative coach travel service.

Display

The installation consists of two panels joined together in a corner and creating two spaces. One space immerses attendees in a coach travel experience: they are invited to choose a journey and are shown what they can see and hear as a passenger using photographs and quotes from other passengers or the bus driver. The next space evokes the methodological approach and insights generated through ethnography and design and confronts these with the actual implementation.A collaboration with the French innovation company idsl.